December 2017 From the IFAC President

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Looking ahead to IFAC 2020

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Only six months after the last IFAC World Con-gress in Toulouse, we are already planning not only the World Congress 2020 in Berlin and the World Congress 2023 in Yokohama but also the World Congress 2026 in – well, this still needs to be determined. All 49 IFAC National Member Organizations (NMOs) are invited to submit their bids until March 2018 applying to host the 23rd IFAC World Congress in their country.

The selection process for the World Congress Sites starts rather early, since this is an impor-tant decision for IFAC. Some reasons for this might be obvious: The World Congress is the largest event of this kind with a rich history and a defining influence on the field of automatic control. Therefore, the organizing teams need to have ample time for the planning and prepara-tions. It is our goal that all delegates take the most out of the World Congress, personally and professionally.

There is also a second reason why this decision is of major importance: IFAC is not only selecting a congress site but also a future IFAC president. Every country that applies to host the IFAC World Congress also presents a presidential candidate for the triennium 2023-2026. This tradition, to link the IFAC president and IFAC World Con-gress, goes back as far as the first IFAC World Congress in Moscow 1960 with the second IFAC president from the USSR, Alexander M. Letov, serving from 1959-1961.

Since the selection of the World Congress Site is such an important decision for IFAC, this deci-sion is taken in a two-step process. The coun-cil takes its first decision at the yearly council meeting in 2018, reducing the number of can-didates to only two or three. These two or three NMOs will then have the opportunity to present their bids at the IFAC Council Meeting in 2019, where the final decision is taken. This is still way too early for you to plan your trip to the World Congress 2026, but the organization of such an event indeed needs a lot of preparation time and the prospective presidential candidate will already be serving as president-elect starting from 2020.

I am looking forward to all World Congress ap-plications and I am curious where I will travel in 2026 – I hope you are, too.

Wishing you and your loved ones a festive holi-day season and all the best for a happy, healthy and successful year 2018,

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